Project 18 - Video

To Part 1. 

Project 18 - Embellishments

30 x fish crates just like that.

Lobster pots were a bit more involved to make. I looked at proprietary models but they appeared to be a block of material with dimples to represent netting - not ideal.

I wanted a mesh netting with 0.5 to 1mm holes and found this at Sainsbury's supermarket in the form of laundry bags, specifically Korband laundry bags two per pack.




I 3D printed the hoops and base in plastic and stuck these together. The size of pot is 8 mm x 6 mm x 4 mm. A strip of mesh 7 mm wide was wrapped around a pin and pushed through the hoops fixing in place with two drops of glue after pin was removed. The ends were glued to mesh that was then cut around when dry. The finished pots were painted with acrylic paint.




I intended to make 30 pots but the assembly is so tedious I only made 24.

Fishing nets were made for the Trawler using the same mesh product painted with acrylics.

That almost finishes the project. I shall add people to the scene, to be purchased at the EM gauge show in May.

About a month's hobby time was required to make the diorama.

It is worth reflecting on the value of such a small project that on the face of it has no other purpose than eye candy.

However,

• A diorama is a good way of experimenting with new modelling techniques before embarking on a larger project The methods used here of embedding rails in the ground and modelling water and lobster pots were new to me.
• The finished scene can be used for photo sessions of various railway wagons and locomotives on the jetty.
• Various scenes can be created using people, goods and maybe seagulls.

THE END (for now)

Mmm... How about sound effects with a sound chip and speaker hidden inside the jetty?

To Part 9.

To Part 1.

Project 18 - Model Water From Toilet Paper

No waves, just rippled water in a protected harbour is required. Whilst searching for suitable modelling methods I came across a YouTube tutorial that in my humble opinion is the quickest, easiest and most authentic means of creating modelled water on the cheap.

Here is the link:

https://youtu.be/2TwpB7sVMn8

Having extended the box forward (last posting) I also extended the box sideways using mirrors giving the appearance of a longer jetty with an extra boat moored alongside.

The trawler height (not including masts) only just fits the box so it cannot sit on top of the thick water layer. I made a template same size as the trawler footprint, blutac'd it in place and cut the toilet paper to fit around it. Having glued the three layers of paper in place the template was removed.

When dry I painted the paper using the same colours and method cited in the tutorial.

Finally, 3 coats of flooring clear gloss sealer brought the water to life.

Not too sure about the muddy colour. Photos of the water at low tide I have seen show it green! I guess it depends on the ambient light conditions so could vary from black to brown to green to blue.

No photographs that I have seen from the period (1960s) show a ladder fixed to the jetty for boat access. If a photo turns up showing a ladder I'll add it.

I found that inclining the back scene gave a better appearance than it  being vertical. It is held in place with light blue ribbon. Unfortunately I failed to achieve a seamless transition between back scene and model across the hinge. A few more wagons placed on the jetty will hide that.

To Part 8.

To Part 1.

Project 18 - A Better View

Family suggested a better view of the diorama would be obtained if the front panel of the box could fold down.

This was much easier to do than expected. The box walls are not glued or screwed but stapled so it was a case of slicing the overall black cover where the front panel joins the sides and floor and prising the panel off.

The protruding staple pins were cut flush.

I hinged the panel using black tape along the outside of the join.

To 'lock' the panel closed I used small neodymium magnets set into the walls and  lined up to the staple butts left in the mating parts.

Making the front panel fold down has another benefit in that the diorama is extended forward by 70mm allowing the sea to flow over the panel. That is the next job.

To Part 7.

To Part 1.

Project 18 - Jetty (Part 3)

The decision as to whether to have the trawler berthed or away from the jetty was made for me when I looked at prototype photographs and the position of trawler relative to jetty in the box.

Unwittingly the scene I have created is low tide. In fact the tide is at its lowest point when the harbour mud bottom is revealed with boats stranded on it. However, the trawler hull design is such that it is meant to be floating on water. Whilst the keel may be just on the mud the water level will be modelled at the hull water line. This solves another issue as to what colour the water should be. With tide that low it will need to be a muddy colour.

The jetty side is a photograph of the real jetty. It shows the wide variation in colours and texture that is visible at low tide. This would be difficult to reproduce authentically by other means.

In the 1960s the pilings at the jetty side were set at about 11 feet intervals. The brown balsa wood pilings shown in the photo need to be embedded in the rippled harbour water and will be fitted when the water is created.

On an academic note, that does not apply to the period of this model, in the 1930s horizontal fender beams were set between the pilings a few feet below the top of the jetty.

To Part 6.

To Part 1.

Project 18 - Jetty (Part 2)

I read that the Jetty is made from concrete and rubble. I guess the sides are concrete and the infill compacted rubble.

With regard to the model jetty its top surface was raised to the top of the rails using DAS clay. I started by infilling between the outside rails. A wet spatula smoothed the surface level by running it along the rails. The rough texture was created by pressing a sheet of coarse sandpaper into the wet clay.

Infilling between the rails of each track posed a problem of how to keep the clay clear of the rails so that the wheel flanges of wagons can  roll unhindered. The solution was to 3D print a plastic channel and spread the clay within that (1st photo).

The clay dries to white. Using acrylic paints I painted it a light grey. Aerial photographs show that the edge of the jetty is lighter, which must be the top of the concrete walls. However, the join between the two shades appears quite ragged.

To Part 5.

To Part 1.

Project 18 - Jetty (Part1)

Not sure if the prototype Jetty side was perpendicular or inclined back in the early 1960s. For simplicity, and from what I can see in photographs, I opted for perpendicular.

The model jetty could be made from a block of foam board or cardboard. But, the strong, rigid sides of the box reminded me of some 5/16 inch pine board I had to hand so that is what I used.

I had to decide how much of the jetty to show in the box. What influences this is the space needed for the Trawler and two jetty railway tracks. I have not yet decided if the Trawler will be berthed or away from the harbour side so I set the jetty width to allow for both whilst ensuring its width still supports two railway tracks. About 70% of the 40 foot jetty width is modelled.

I used some spare code 100 rail for the tracks, which need to be embedded in the ground. Consequently the top of the Jetty (shown here askew) lies about 3mm below the harbour side when fitted. The ground level will be raised around the rails with DAS clay.

The position of the rail nearest the harbour side was scaled from an aerial photograph and judged to be about 5.75 feet. I believe the 'six foot way' between the two tracks is about 6.5 feet in practise, which the photograph seemed to confirm.

To Part 4.

To Part 1.

Project 18 - Back Scene

The back scene is to fit the inside of the box file lid.

It is created from a modern photograph of the scene viewed from the West Quay on the other side of the harbour, which is now a car park. The viewpoint overlooks the harbour, South Jetty, the Camel estuary and in the far right distance the fishing port of Rock.

There was a lot of modern clutter in the foreground, cars, crane etc. that was wiped in my photo editing application.

The Jetty is about 40 feet wide, which is too much to fit the box file along with the Trawler so, it must disappear into the back scene, which is represented by the pale strip at  the bottom.

I had to enlarge the image considerably, which has forced the landscape out of focus. This may be advantageous as the eye needs to be drawn to the foreground model more than the back scene and with wagons placed on the jetty rails the landscape will be even more obscured.

To Part 3.

To Part 1.

Project 18 - Box File Diorama

In November 2016 Model Rail magazine featured model railways that contained water scenes and it made available a free 4mm scale Trawler kit by Scalescenes (now available to purchase direct from Scalescenes). The magazine and its giveaway inspired me to create a micro layout of a harbour railway featuring the Trawler. However, after my Swanage Loco Yard micro layout took far longer to make than expected I did not fancy another lengthy project at the time so, it progressed no further.

That was the case until recently when I came across a couple of videos on YouTube showing railway layouts built into a Box File. These are working 'N' gauge oval track layouts. As I was getting itchy fingers to do some new modelling I decided that here was potential to create my 4 mm scale harbour with little effort. It would not be an operating railway but just a static diorama with railway track on top of the harbour wall. With the box file stored along with other files it would cause surprise when the lid was opened to reveal something other than documents.

Readers may know that all my model layouts are closely based on real locations and this project will be no exception. In a box file all that can be accommodated in 4mm scale is a harbour side and a strip of sea with boat(s). The back scene could be warehousing in low relief to add more interest.

With my railway interest being BR Southern Region I began searching for a suitable south coast location to model. It had to be a fishing port and quite quickly I came upon Padstow, Cornwall. The railway environs were torn up long ago (except the station building, which was put to new use). The railway once spread out along the water edge. In fact the LSWR reclaimed land from the sea and rebuilt the South Outer Harbour with fish handling shed to capitalise on fish transportation.

My warehouse back scene idea was abandoned when I saw the South Jetty. It juts out from the land with harbour on one side and the Camel River estuary on the other. On top were two railway sidings that were in use from the 1930s to 1960s. The back scene for the model will not be a warehouse but the view of the estuary and far bank.

I had a spare box file and the Trawler kit so work began building the Trawler kit. I could find no historical information about the Trawler itself but on searching for trawlers from the 1960s similar style boats were found. Going back further to the 1950s was less productive.

MR 288 is a Manchester registered vessel. Whether or not the model is of a real trawler I don't know but as trawlers from all around the UK could be seen at Padstow I am happy that this one finds it way onto my harbour scene.

To get it into a box file with the lid shut all that has to be done is to lift off the masts. The rigging is elasticated thread that is fixed to the boat and 'gives' to allow the masts to be lifted out and laid down. Fitting the rigging was the most fiddly part of the build.

It is ironic that back in the summer (2017) I visited Padstow and remember watching a fishing boat berth alongside the jetty not knowing that it once carried a working railway and that I would soon be modelling it!

To Part 2.